


Secret Santa

by sarih93



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-15
Updated: 2015-12-15
Packaged: 2018-05-06 19:59:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5428811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarih93/pseuds/sarih93
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's always romance in the air during Christmas</p>
            </blockquote>





	Secret Santa

"What do you have there JJ?"

Julie froze at the sound of Hope's voice. The goalkeeper was one of the last people she would have wanted to find her just now.

"It's just a gift for my Secret Santa." Julie tries to put the box away but Hope is too fast and takes it away from her.

Hope carefully inspects the jewelry box. "I'm sure Press will love this."

"How do you know this is for Christen?"

"I know who everyone Secret Santa is," Hope says with a smirk. 

"Did you tell anyone?"

"No," Hope answers quickly. "Maybe Carli," Julie looks at her, “and Kelley,” Hope admits.

"So are you going to give this to Christen at dinner or after?"

"Actually I was thinking about leaving it on her room during dinner," Julie says like it’s no big deal.

"Isn't it easier to give it to her in person?"

Julie grips the box tighter but doesn’t say anything.

 "You're afraid she's finally going to realize that you're head over heels for her."

“That’s not… I’m not…”  Julie deflates with a sigh, she has already spent enough time denying this.

"She's so amazing. I mean she’s basically perfect and smells really good all the time. But we’re teammates and we live together in Chicago and there’s just so many ways this could go wrong,” Julie rants.

“So it's true what they say of people who spend a lot of time together,” Hope jokes about Julie’s nervous word vomit.

"That explains why you were drinking chocolate milk yesterday" Julie says unimpressed at Hope's attempt at humor. Hope glares for a moment but doesn’t respond, knowing it's true.

"Look you should give this to her in person. If you want you can do it somewhere quiet."

"Or, I can buy another present." Something cute with dogs, Christen will love it and it won’t be the reason of the end of their friendship.

"I know you're not a coward." Hope makes a pause to think what to say to give Julie some courage, something that it’s easier for her to do in the field. She figures that talking from experience would probably be her best bet. "I don't know exactly when you started to have feelings for Press but I'm sure by now you've tried to get over her and have failed every time. Maybe there's a reason for that."

"I didn't know you were such a big believer in fate."

Hope shrugs.

"This is your chance kid." Hope squeezes Julie’s shoulder before leaving her alone.

The young defender plays with the box in her hands. The moment she got that piece of paper with Christen’s name on it she knew what she wanted to give her. The second thoughts started after leaving the jewelry store and have grown exponentially since.

Still she knows Hope is right, this is her chance to tell Christen that she holds her heart.

*

The staff had planned the gift exchange to take place after dinner but Julie couldn't imagine having to wait that long.

On the bus ride after practice her knee was bouncing so much that not only did Alyssa who was sitting next to her noticed but also Carli and Hope on the other side of the aisle. Hope obviously knew why she was so nervous but thankfully she didn't say anything. Or maybe, Julie thought, she was just waiting to tell Carli in private.

Christen gets off the bus before her. Julie hurries to her room to retrieve the gift. She's on her way downstairs and when the elevator doors open on the lobby Christen is right there, standing next to Ali.

"Hi Jules," Christen greets her softly. Ali smiles at her

"Chris! I was just about to go looking for you. Can we talk?"

"Sure. Let's go to my room"

Julie steps aside to make room on the elevator for Christen and Ali. Christen stands next to Julie, close enough for their hands to brush. It's nothing new for them but it never fails to make Julie's heartbeat go haywire.

"So what did you wanted to talk about? You seem nervous." It was stupid of Julie to think she could get anything past Christen

"Actually I wanted to give you something." Julie took the box out of her sweatpants. "I'm your Secret Santa. Surprise," Julie says nervously while Christen opened the box. Julie observed impatiently for Christen's reaction.

Christen smiles in awe at the bracelet inside the box. "It's exactly like the one my dad bought me-"

"-when you got into Stanford and that you lost in Sweden," Julie completes her sentence. "There's one small modification though."

Julie takes the bracelet from Christen's hand and turns it around. On the back of the soccer ball charm there was a 23 engraved. There were two other charms with Christen’s initials.

Christen hugs Julie tightly. Julie takes a deep breath. This is the perfect moment to mention those pesky little feelings of hers but she doesn’t know how to start. She had spent so long trying to not talk about them and now it seemed impossible to do.

"Thank you, this is more than amazing. Was this hard to find?” Christen asks, admiring again her present.

Hard to find? Not really, because she had it custom made.

"Just a couple trips to jewelry stores," Julie lies.

 "This means so much to me. You mean so much to me." With her free hand she squeezes Julie's hand.

"What are the odds?" Christen mumbles

"What?" Julie asks with a hint of panic in her voice.

"What are the odds that we were each other's Secret Santa," Chris repeats with a smile and bounces over to her suitcase.

"This is for you."

It was a small box, wrapped in red paper. Julie just stared at the gift for a moment before starting to unwrap it. "Tickets to see Kelsea Ballerini in Chicago? I thought you didn't like country music."

"I don’t but I know how much you like it and figured I could put up with it for one day." Christen shrugs before beaming at the gobsmacked look on Julie’s face.

This is the kind of thing that makes Julie know that she's never going to get over Christen. There's no point in continuing with her silence.

"I love you," Julie blurts out.

"I love you too," Christen says with an easy smile.

Julie shakes her head. "No," she starts, "I mean I _love_ you."

 Christen seems frozen, like she’s still trying to process what Julie is telling her.

"I have feelings for you, I have for a while," Julie finally admits.

"I love you too," Christen repeats with a big smile and bright eyes.

"Oh." It's all Julie can say. She tries to add something more but Christen is leaning closer and talking is overrated anyways. Christen kisses her softly but with determination, like she wants to make sure Julie gets what this means to her.

"Oh" Julie repeats and licks her lips absentmindedly while she stares at Christen’s mouth. "Great," she adds after a beat and mentally kicks herself for saying that.

"You're more than just my best friend Jules."

Julie smiles and leans in for another kiss. Dinner can wait.

**

Hope watched with a smile as Julie walked into the conference room hand in hand with Christen.

She felt someone sitting next to her.

"Told you I could get them together," Hope said smugly.

"Congratulations, I have never been more proud of you," Kelley said trying to keep a straight face but her eyes betrayed her. Hope, not for the first time wondered what exactly she got herself into.

"Does this count as your Christmas gift?"

"Of course not. I expect diamonds. Or a new surfboard. Yeah forget what I said about diamonds, I want a surfboard."

Hope's laughter made a few people look their way. Including Julie, who made eye contact with her. She mouthed "thank you". Hope nodded in acknowledgement.

Christmas was her favorite season. And she had a feeling Kelley was going to like her gift, even if it was considerably smaller and rounder that a surfboard, not to mention shinier.

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't spend a lot of time editing this because I want to start working on my Christen/Alex fic right away.


End file.
